Coffee Chats Podcast | Business, Marketing, & Relationship Building for Women in Business

Tahjma VanBuren 00:00:00 The inability to be both a creative artist and generate income is a lie. And I'm going to use this episode to walk us through four pieces of wisdom that I've gathered from being three years in the creative business space, while also being the daughter of a highly creative woman, and a previous episode of Coffee Chats podcast. So I did an episode with Giovanna Simons, a little bit ago where I think actually in March, where we talked about her business as a interactive, I believe she called it an interactive, wedding painter or wedding painter specifically. She does live paintings of weddings particularly, but not exclusively. And some of the things that we really talked about is how to be both creative and entrepreneur. A lot of times when we hear people who are entrepreneurs, we don't really think about how they can also be making money. Oftentimes, it's kind of like the struggling artist or the starving artist, stereotype that we are often considering or often thinking about. Even me personally, whenever I'm like, oh, I have a podcast or whenever I tell somebody about my podcast, it kind of feels like I'm telling somebody that I have a mixtape.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:01:31 Regardless of how innovative and how interesting and how booming the podcast industry has become within the last 5 to 6 years. It doesn't matter. It still feels like, hey, come listen to my mixtape. so regardless, there is a avenue for creative business owners, even if you think back to when a TikTok. And I'm bringing this up because I've experienced this with vine and now experienced it again with TikTok. How people who are highly, highly creative don't really consider themselves to be entrepreneurs and they really don't engage with their with their selling of their artistry, of their creativity in an entrepreneurial way. And I think it's one of the things that's kind of hurting our ability to grow and to sustain ourselves as creatives. So I want to be able to dive into four big pieces of wisdom that I was able to pull from Giovanna's episode. If you haven't listened to that, I'm going to put it in the show notes, as well as what I've gathered from being the daughter of a highly creative woman. for those that don't know, I feel like I've mentioned my mom in there every single episode in some capacity.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:02:49 I am in awe of her. I am in awe of how incredible it is to watch not only a woman, but a black woman, a woman who is a veteran. Do the dang on thing in the business space, and really carve out what it looks like for her to exist in her most creative self, while supplying for herself and for her family. So let's get into our four pieces of wisdom. First off, I want to mention that your origin story is not random. It is the blueprint. Okay.

Jobana Semones 00:03:27 360 from like where the creation starts and, where maybe dullness and a little bit of soul crushing work begins. I did a lot of wonderful things where I was able to help a lot of families, helping people through navigating budgeting and their financial well-being. So it kind of made me think about, like, the money side of things, because as a business owner, I think that's important. And often it's one of the things that we overlooked at How to Plan for. I transitioned into marketing because the the job that I was in kind of saw my creative spark and my innovations, and I got to do a lot of really cool things.

Jobana Semones 00:04:08 I got to, you know, create a mascot. I create a financial education program for kids. So all of that was great. But as many people who have worked a 9 to 5 job, you are very limited into what you can do and your time is not yours. And if you're not careful, you know you can experience burnout. And so I did become a little bit stifled, I think, in my being. And I felt that I was burning the candle at both ends.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:04:46 So many creatives feel like our past jobs or our creative Pivots or our pitfalls are failures. Personal challenges were a waste of time, and I want to tell you that that has to be one of the biggest lies that we that we kind of get ourselves to believe in me, for example, I went from studying human development and family studies to wanting to be. When I was studying that in college, I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to be in the nonprofit sector. So I went from teacher to nonprofit to working to wanting to be like a speaker and a podcaster, to developing websites, to being a writer, to being an Uber driver, to working at enterprise Rent-A-Center, or rental rent or rent a car, enterprise, rent a car and back to podcasting.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:05:40 All of this when I started really thinking about it, and in the moment it feels like, what the heck are you doing? What the heck is going on over there. And if you don't truly take the time to pinpoint what you have going on and what, pieces of lessons and pieces of skills that you've garnered from all of these different experiences, you'll think that you're all over the place and in the moment. I can't lie to you. It does feel like you're all over the place. But what I didn't know is I garnered so many of those, so many of the things that I have learned from being in the nonprofit sector has helped me with being able to know how I want to have programs and products and services that truly impact people. I don't want to create a business for the sake of transactions. I want to be able to help people solve very tangible problems. And when I get really specific about that, it helps me know that, hey, I was a top salesperson in the state of North Carolina for enterprise, which helped me to understand when you have a service, that is a no brainer.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:06:54 When you have a system behind all of your sailing, behind all of your sales propositions, you can sell anything which, depending on who you are, that's a good or a bad thing. Then I start looking at my mom and in the interest of not telling someone else's story for them, for them. I'll just say that there is a certain amount of confidence that it takes in order to constantly reinvent yourself, in order to lean into creating your own economy, in order to lean into how the heck am I going to preserve my freedom, preserve my sense of autonomy, preserve my gifts and my creativity while still living in a society that doesn't really admire that in a conventional sense, they don't. The systems are not automatically set up for you to be able to do that in a streamlined fashion. Then I need us to really start thinking about how these breadcrumbs of experiences are a part of our strategy. They're not detours. They're not, they're very much direction. Because, again, like I said, I did not know that there's some aspect of me being able to pull and create community for myself and create community with other people that I learned from every single one of the jobs that I've had, every single one of the the experiences that I thought, oh, I'm ten toes down in on this.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:08:32 And I wouldn't have known had I not followed the blueprint, had I not given myself space to test the waters, to figure out what's going on. Yeah. I don't know if I've mentioned this on this podcast. I might have been a guest on someone else's podcast and mentioned I spent $10,000 on the photobooth business that I don't own anymore. Well, over 10,000, actually, on a photobooth business that I don't own on my own anymore because I was trying to sell something that I did not connect with. It didn't really spark with my personal creativity and it paying. Paying for all of that in the moment feels crazy. It it it wasn't the best use of my resources, but I learned so, so much. All of the people that we admire as business moguls, as creatives who are in the mainstream society or mainstream of their industry, we admire them because they had all of these pitfalls and all of these failures that they can pinpoint back to. Oh, I learned that lesson. Let me come back and make sure I don't make that that mistake anymore.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:09:46 That lesson cost me $50,000. Let me make sure I don't do that. I learned that I didn't want to do that anymore. It cost me $50,000, but I learned something from that experience. So being able to constantly lean into the fact that every single thing. I'm not a person that believes in coincidences. So every single thing that has happened in every single thing that we have experienced and done has been on purpose. So tiny. What experiences, creative gifts or pain points are trying to guide your business model? Our second piece of wisdom is build structure before you build visibility.

Jobana Semones 00:10:33 I decided that it was a good time to build a structure, kind of build the foundation for what I would need, improve my website, improve a lot of elements within it, and then plan out what I wanted to do for the future. You know, how would I grow, what type of services I would provide in addition to live painting? Consistency, I think, is one of the challenges that I have to battle.

Jobana Semones 00:10:57 And I guess when I say consistency is, you know, how will I show up for my business each day? You know, what micro habits do I want to put in place and, and make sure that I'm disciplined enough so that I can run a business that is there for when people need me. Also, consistency in posting. I am the worst social media poster so far, but that's because I've focused a lot of my energy and just building the underlying structure. Because like, you know, I could post and I could, you know, hit a moment where, like, a lot of people are asking for orders or doing all these things, but like if I don't have the structure to support that level of demand, then I may ruin my business because then there's disappointment in people. So it's kind of giving up a little bit of the income or a little bit of the the time that I would otherwise have to, to ensure that I have systems in place to protect me and ensure that I can meet the demand that's out there.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:12:05 Now, Giovanna talked a lot about this from the perspective of she could be making a whole lot more money than she already is, but her specific desire to build a system behind her business, because she knows the kind of person that she can be, she knows the kind of person that she could be. She could be posting more often on Instagram. She could be building her email list a little bit more strategically. She could be selling more and more things, but because she knows who she is, she knows the impact that she's looking to make and she's not willing to sacrifice her own creativity. She takes a step back and focuses on the systems. One of the biggest lessons that I learned last year was I was preparing more for the no than I was the yes. By being unprepared for the yes. If I didn't have my systems together for when I took a sales call in order to if they said yes, what what system was I going to take them through? If they said yes to this offer, how was I going to accept the money if they said yes to, finishing out this program, how was I going to move them through that process? I spent more time preparing for them to say no than for them to say yes, because I was more focused, or probably because I was more focused on the visibility and all of the things out there that I was on, really solidifying my systems.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:13:40 In fact, I was working with a client earlier this week, and we were looking at her visibility structure as far as if you show up as a guest on a podcast, how do you make sure that you have a very clear return on your investment? A lot of times people show up to podcasts and they're like, yeah, I'm super excited. I've given all my energy and I've told all of the exciting things about the work that I do and how I impact people, and the episode has gone out, but then nothing else happens. So an effort to miss all of that, we, she and I, worked our way backwards. And when I was looking at her email data, when I was looking at the email sequences and how she's bringing people in, okay, you're going to be on a, on a, on a podcast as a guest. Then what what how do you bring people to action? There was so much thought that went into every single email that she put out there, that she didn't know that she was putting that level of thought.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:14:40 She just knew. I want to be prepared. I don't want to move too fast because haste does not. I forget what the Bible verse is, but it's in Proverbs where it talks about haste, makes many mistakes. You can be so excited. And us creatives have a way of being super, super excited about something and then just jumping the gun and wanting to do it, which serves. Personally, it has served me well in some aspects, but in most write the plan, work the plan, and then move forward. What I noticed about what she had going on was there were she wanted to be very specific about how she was taking people through a process, and the fact that she already had that mindset made my job a whole lot easier, because I'm not having to convince you that, hey, let's slow down. It's not necessarily about the sale for right now. Let's nurture the experience for other people, which I think is what happens when we see all of these people who have a million different views or a million impressions on their different social posts, or they get all of these different inquiries, but then they fizzle out because they didn't make a plan for engaging with those people.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:15:59 They didn't create a system behind, okay, if I put out this really good piece of content, does it just turn into a really good piece of content or does it produce me income? Does it turn into a really good piece of content, or does it give my business something to do with it? Like how how can I measure this return on investment? So for this piece of wisdom, here's your tiny sip. Do you have the structure to handle the attention you're asking for? The third piece of wisdom that I have is don't let scarcity steer the wheel.

Jobana Semones 00:16:39 Not having my calendar be book all the time. If I see a gap, I think there's a tendency for business owners to be like, but there's money to be made here. And or if you see that there's a slim month or two in the future, the need to like, discount your services or the need to, like, just fill it with filler. And there, I think, is a need for showing restraint in those moments.

Jobana Semones 00:17:03 Because while it might benefit you for that limited time, it could be something that could hurt your business overall.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:17:11 Yeah.

Jobana Semones 00:17:12 And so I think for me, that's probably one of the biggest challenges, is like being able to be disciplined and showing restraint and being true to my vision of the type of business I want to build. Like, you want to take on any job that will provide for your family.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:17:28 Yeah.

Jobana Semones 00:17:30 And sometimes.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:17:30 You have.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:17:31 To do that in a way.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:17:32 Because it feels like. Yeah, I don't say yes right now. I don't know when this opportunity is going to come back.

Jobana Semones 00:17:38 Right, right. And I think, you know, sometimes people don't have that choice and and they have to do it, you know, because they have a family to support. And I do that. I, I'm still responsible for bills. Like I still pay my half of the portion. That was kind of the agreement I set with my husband because like, I've you know, I grew up in a household where I was always independent and where I always kind of had to meet my needs.

Jobana Semones 00:18:04 And this has been a dream of mine. This has been something that I've been very passionate for. And if that's something that I was really passionate for, and I think it was helpful that I was in the financial sector because it opened up my eyes to so many things where I deprive myself of certain things, like, I have a 2011, Camry that I've driven for like five, six years. It's paid off. I'm going to continue having it. It has some bumps. I don't care, like I don't care what people think of me. Because I remember being like, I'm going to put the extra money that I would have to pay on a car payment towards building a security net for my business.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:18:46 Do not let scarcity take hold and get in the driver's seat, and you get in the back, or you get in the passenger seat because it is the worst thing. And I know that we have all been experiencing this, especially as creatives. We all get to this moment where we know we need to make the sale.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:19:04 We know we need to pay this bill. We know that we need to do something in order to bring some version of income in. So we just settle with a really crappy client that we kind of know was going to be a really crappy client from the beginning, or we allow ourselves to get out of flow. We allow ourselves to to sign on with. Programs and partnerships with people that aren't really a match. They don't really see our creative vision. They don't really get it. Or they're trying to shift our creative vision to turn it into something that it never was. And one of the things that I've noticed is we always regret when we sign on a client that we did not want to sign on to when we underprice our services, when we allow someone else to dictate our creativity. We always regret it, but then we keep doing it. And I think we keep doing it because we haven't set up any parameters or boundaries for ourselves. Not for somebody else, but for ourselves, boundaries for ourselves, parameters for ourselves.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:20:17 To stop it, to make sure that we're not making decisions out of fear. So a couple of things that I like to do is it is really important to me to read my Bible. Now I'm not I won't pretend or I won't lie to you until I tell you I read it every single day. But I can feel the difference when I don't. I can feel the difference when three days goes by and I'm like, everything feels like it's going off the wheels. It's because, girl, have you drink any water? Have you eaten something yet? Have you read your Bible? So putting parameters around what you have going on is very, very helpful. And sometimes even asking God, Hey God, I have this thing that feels very necessary to do. Somebody's waiting on me to do this thing. This other thing feels like it has a lot of pressure, While I also know that I want to get into your presence, I want to spend time talking to you. Can you configure the day to make that happen? Can you configure the day to make that happen? And sometimes that looks like a little nudge that says maybe that thing is not as important as you said it was.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:21:40 The other thing is journaling helps the future version of you remember this moment. So a lot of times when I talk about journaling to people, they often say, I can't write as fast as my brain is thinking, or as fast as I want to be able to get the information out. And I hear you, I get it. There's no such thing as video journaling and that still works. Okay, so if you need to do pen and paper, if you need to do a video of you just sitting there talking to yourself, whatever that looks like. Document in some capacity. Hey, I had this really crappy experience with this client, or I had this really crappy moment where I. My contract wasn't foolproof. Write about it. Document how it felt. Document how it felt before that happened. Because nine times out of ten, our body knows. Our intuition knows. Hey, something's about to go awry. I don't know what it is, but something's about to go awry. Being able to put on paper.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:22:50 To put in our memory that this thing has happened, that allows us to to speak a little bit more lean, a little bit more into our discernment to be able to know this feels like something else I've already experienced. Let me take a moment and adjust. Even if you decide not to go back and look at those things, there's something about writing it down. There's something about being able to. Even earlier this year, I had to sit down and be like, hey, my contract was a little crazy. This happened. They were able to get away with this because of this particular thing that was or was not in my contract. I went back and adjusted it. Here's how I handled the conversation. Here's how I felt and all the things that you want to say in the email. Just write it down. Say it in the video. And then the third piece that helps us not lean into scarcity is creating a system of income that lets us say no to more things. And unfortunately, those are going to be the more boring contracts.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:23:59 Now, at first thought or first hearing, you're probably like Tajima. What do you mean? This is. I'm. I'm creative. I don't want to do the boring contracts. I promise you. I don't want to do the boring Contracts either. However, the Bourne contracts pay the bills. They make way for you to be able to say, they just offered me $10,000, but I don't know. They're wanting me to do this. That doesn't really align their wanting me to do that. That doesn't really align or their want. It seems like it aligns. But something in my gut is telling me I don't know. So instead, look for the boring contracts. So for me, I don't necessarily enjoy editing people's audio. It's not one of the first things that come to mind, but that's something that people need all the time. So I go and I set I set up a system so that people always can opt in to having their audio edited for their podcast, or I set up a system where people can opt in.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:25:12 Hey, I was a guest on the podcast. Can you turn these clips into captions so that. Or can you write the captions for these clips? I don't know what to write. Can you turn this podcast episode into a blog post? I don't know how to write all of these things. It creates a system for okay, my bills are paid, the business bills are paid. We're in a good spot now. I'm working from excess. Then consider just because you have a skill doesn't mean that you should add it to your plate. I mentioned earlier in this episode that at some point I thought I wanted to do web design and build websites. However, I learned that I didn't necessarily like the process that went along with that. Now, this is a skill that I hold, and at some point in launching people's podcasts, in managing people's podcasts, I thought, oh, well, I just. It's an easy thing that I can put on there to just be like, oh, I'll make a landing page for your podcast.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:26:17 As much as I can do it. Everything that we can do shouldn't be done as much as I can do. It doesn't mean that I should do it. So I pulled that portion of the service from my list and outsourced it. I give other people who that's their jam. I give them the opportunity to say, hey, I have this client. Can you build a landing page for them? Which again allows us to not work from a place of scarcity, not work from a place of fear? Little things like that give us the the mental clarity to work from our own true zone of genius, which is what you and I are creative business people we love. If we can be creating for the entirety of the day that we're in our happy place. But little moments like this where just because you have the skill, just because you can write, doesn't mean that you need to go write a blog post. Just because you can edit doesn't mean that you need to go and start editing everybody's stuff.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:27:19 Stick to your zone of genius, and it robs other people from the opportunity to work within their gift. How dare you! So then my final note within this piece of wisdom is prioritizing business sustainability over appearances. One of the things that I like to make sure that I do is keeping my expenses lean as possible. If I don't have to buy it, even if I absolutely have the money, I'm not going to buy it. A good example of this is I have the money to opt into asana. I love asana. I love working with asana. It's a great project management tool. However, I'm on the free version of asana because I, for whatever reason, they're. I don't know if you have seen, but if you go and opt into asana and it's just you, they still want you to pay for three seats, meaning instead of paying. I think it was like ten, 10 or $12 a month, you're automatically bumped up to, I want to say 30 or $35 a month.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:28:27 Now the tool is very useful. However, there's I'm a person that pays attention to every single cent that goes in and out of my accounts. There is no world that I am going to pay for, and a subscription service for seats that don't exist. It's just me right now. Now, when I decide to bring on other people, at staff members, or really leap into the internship program that I'm looking to do, future attachment is going to be so excited when I actually take this leap. But when I really look into bringing on other people, cool. No problem. The three seats make sense. However, if I don't need to buy it, I'm not buying it. And I think that's one of the things that we run into the issue of where we're thinking O but everybody's using I o but everybody has this. This. Everybody says that this is going to make my job so much easier as a digital marketer, as a virtual assistant, as a event planner. As a web designer, developer, whatever.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:29:40 Everybody in my industry is using this. Are you everybody, whether they used to say as kids, if, was a monkey, see, monkey do if John or or John Adams jumped off the cliff, would you follow him just because he jumped off a cliff? It's just not a good use of. It's not a good Stewardship of our resources. So tiny sip. Normalize the discipline it takes to build something that lasts, not just something that sells. Our final piece of wisdom is what you do should be deeply personal or you're doing it wrong.

Jobana Semones 00:30:21 Not many people get to see an artist create on site. They can see it through videos, but it's not the same as seeing someone in person, just creating something out of nothing. This is an opportunity for you to have a piece of art that you have the ability to tell me what's most meaningful to you, and to really highlight one of the biggest milestones a person experiences in their life. I get to kind of talk through some of the options.

Jobana Semones 00:30:47 Some people decide, like I envision the first kiss. You know, that's that's the moment that I want to capture. And I'm like, okay, so tell me a little bit more about it. Is it a soft and tender kiss like, is that the mood or is it a dramatic dip? You know, because you have people with different personalities. And then I can then later make sketches, make suggestions, and kind of guide them through the process to ensure that they're not limiting themselves, because so often people are like, well, I want to make sure I remember everything. So can I put the cake? Can I put, you know, the little details in your, your event or day? And I'm like, you're going to have photos probably that have the cake that have, the decoration of this thing. But this is a piece of art that is going to hang whether you decide to put it in your living room or in your bedroom. What do you want that piece of art to say about you? I have some, like, mothers, or I've even had, bridal parties, like friends of the groom or.

Jobana Semones 00:31:58 Or the bride get together and collaborate so that they can pay for that experience for the couple. So it's it's truly an amazing thing because you kind of you see the connection that that they have with the people around them. This particular client. Her grandmother had just passed away before their wedding and she was like, I love my grandmother. My grandmother was like, MVP and I want a way to remember her. And she's like, now one thing I do know is that she loved butterflies. Is there a way to incorporate butterflies into my piece? So it's really amazing to be able to turn something like a moment, a cherished moment, turn into a piece of art. But on top of that, be able to add elements that maybe cannot be photographed, elements that otherwise would not exist.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:32:50 Now, again, as creative people, we are constantly doing something that's deeply personal to us. What did Eric about do? Say I'm an artist, so I'm sensitive. Okay. As business owners, when we bring the business to our art, we cannot be disconnected from our offers.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:33:11 Which goes back to the point that I made. Which was just because you have a skill doesn't mean that that's something that you should be doing. For example, the I love working with people who just kind of nerd out about their craft. If we can sit there and an hour goes by and you have spent most of that time really diving into what you do, whether that's a lawyer or an event planner or whatever. I think that that is so cool. And those are the people that I love working with the most, because they create space for me to work in my zone of genius, because they are so far into their own zone of genius. And podcasting Casting inherently is a fairly intimate space. You're listening to people or people are listening to you in the shower. People are listening to you at their desk at work. People are listening to you in the car for their 20 minute ride. It's inherently intimate, so I can't afford to work with someone who I can't vibe with that doesn't match with my values, that doesn't connect with what I have going on.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:34:22 Giovanna also spoke to her not simply delivering an art piece. People are getting the opportunity to watch someone live paint at a wedding, so she's delivering the art piece, a physical canvas. However, she's also delivering an experience. She's also asking questions up front. Hey, what do you want this piece to embody? This is not just your simple. You have a photographer there. But this is not just simply. Y'all are at the altar. I'll just. I'll do the painting. I want to be able to craft what is so special to you in this moment. And she gets it done. That's intimate. And it matches her values and it matches her vibe. And my mom in particular, as an event planner, what could be more intimate than that? She is crafting and curating an experience to celebrate people's business and life milestones. If you mess up my 50th birthday party, or if you give me a copy and paste 50 50th birthday party, I'm not going to be super excited. I'm not going to be super happy if you give me a copy and paste grand opening.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:35:33 I'm not going to be super excited and super happy. You need to know who I am and that's what our clients are expecting of us. So being able to be truly rooted in who we are and truly, deeply personal about what we're offering allows other people to be able to trust our expertise as well? So our tiny sip there is. What emotional resonance does your service create? What would people feel from working with you? Okay, so now for today's faith note, which actually comes from two places today. For those that have not been listening to the Coffee Chats podcast before, this podcast and the business behind it, Ideas Management is rooted in the scripture of Matthew 1720 which reads, if you have the faith of even just the size of a mustard seed, you can tell that mountain to go from here to there, and it will do it. It will listen. It takes a whole lot of faith in order to be a business owner. It takes a whole lot of faith in order to do a lot of things, but especially to be a business owner, especially be especially to be a creative business owner.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:36:48 It is our responsibility to lean into the gifts that we've been given our creativity, and allow God to do the rest. So every episode I leave us with a faith note, whether that's a solo episode like this one, or a guest episode like the one, probably link somewhere in the show notes or on the video version of this episode. So today's faith note comes from Ecclesiastes 910. And when I read that, it reminded me of Colossians 323. So I'm going to read both of those. Starting with Ecclesiastes 910. Whatever your hand finds to do. Do it with all your might. For in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working, nor planning, nor knowledge, nor wisdom. Let me go to Colossians 323. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters. As creative entrepreneurs, Cause we are so easy to lean into the feeling of I'm an artist, or I do work whenever the feeling piques me.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:37:57 Whatever that feeling is. It's different for a lot of us, but a lot of us really want to just lean into the fact that we are artists. So we can we can flow by the wind. If you read Ecclesiastes, the entire book really mentions the wind and how unsustainable it is. that's one of the consistent pieces that happen throughout the entire book. When I read these verses, it made me it reminded me of the the importance of working from excellence when we're working from excellence. And oh my gosh, Kirk Franklin actually said this in a way that I did not. I feel like I needed to hear him say this, and there was some podcast that he did within the last year or two where he talked about how a lot of people think that just because they put a stamp of God on it, that that already makes it excellent. But the fact that we are working from the place of this is not I don't produce podcast all willy nilly. I don't do marketing all willy nilly. I do it from this, from the perspective of there are platforms that other people need to be on.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:39:04 There's wisdom that other people need to be need to hear, and it's locked inside of each one of us. There's a story, a testimony locked inside of each one of us. So how dare we not share that? So it's my personal responsibility to create platforms for other people to have their their message heard, essentially from an artistry standpoint. But then also from a business perspective, it we need to be working from a place of excellence. This is our opportunity in this life. This is our opportunity to work from a place of excellence. Ecclesiastes 910. Going back there, whatever your hand finds to do. Do it with all your might. We're not going to have another opportunity to share the gifts that in this human life, we're not going to have another opportunity to do this. So why not really lean into it? None of the people that we have come to love and respect have done their art, done their craft from a place of I'm just going to do it all willy nilly. I'm just going to do it when the the feeling strikes me.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:40:19 I'm just going to start writing because I have the vibe and the feeling to start, right. I'm just going to podcast just because I have the feeling of I have the energy to do it right now, sometimes. Most times there's a certain amount of discipline that we really need to enact into our craft, and a part of that discipline is knowing who you truly are. Because when you know who you truly are. Which goes back to our first point of our origin story is not random. When we know who we truly are, when we know where we come from, we know what our strengths and weaknesses are. That's giving us the place to know, okay, this is what discipline needs to look like for me in this season, when we know how to build structure behind our visibility, how to build structure behind our plans, that's us working with excellence. When we know that we're not going to work from a place of of fear and scarcity, that is us working from a place of excellence. When we know how deeply and how personal our services and our products are to the people that utilize them, that's when we work from a place of excellence.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:41:33 This is the only opportunity that we get on this side of life to be able to give to other people, to be able to share our gifts with other people, to be able to share our love with other people. So why not? And truly, how dare we not work with the place of excellence? Sometimes that means that you have to sit down and and make a plan to actually write. Sometimes that means that you have to sit down and make a plan to to address your admin side of your business as a creative. I hate going into PayPal and being like, hey, okay, let's see. Let's see what where, where the things are. What do I need to put to taxes? All these other things. It's not exciting regardless of how much money you're making. But because I'm I'm striving to do business from a place of excellence and not be one of those people that says, I run a godly business, and then the godly business is kind of all over the place. How dare I put God's name next to that? How dare I? So Colossians 323 is actually one of my favorite verses.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:42:42 And my my prior understanding of that verse was to work from exhaustion to work from a place of my own strength. But really it's saying. God has given us the ability to be fruitful. He's given us the commandment to be fruitful and multiply. He's given us the commandment to work, to share the gifts that he's given us. So we need to be doing that. Trying to get back to the verse. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Alright, I am hopeful that that spoke to somebody. I love the opportunity to, be here on the podcast to share the word. I'm nobody's teacher. That is a responsibility that I am uninterested in having. but I think we're all called to, again, share our gifts, share our resources, share our story with each other so that we can speak life into each other. All right. I'm off my soapbox. Bye. You've been listening to Coffee Chats podcast from IMO's Management, a marketing agency serving small business owners.

Tahjma VanBuren 00:44:04 This episode was written, hosted, produced, and edited by me, Tajima Van Buren. If you want to learn more about anything you heard on the show, schedule your coffee chat using the link in the description. We'll talk all things podcasting and how to use it as a true marketing strategy for you and your small business. Go to Imas management.com for further information. Thank you to our listeners for supporting the show by.